I Love You - Three Years Later (now AU)
by GoodShipSherlollipop
Summary: On the third anniversary of the events at Sherrinford, Mycroft arrives bearing gifts, not only for his niece Victoria's second birthday, but a special gift for Sherlock and Molly that he feels they are finally ready for. How will they react to this unexpected reminder of what happened three years earlier? (Now AU - What if COVID-19 had not happened?) ILYanniversary 2020
1. Gifts from Mycroft

Molly heard the sound of the front door opening and closing. Sherlock breezed into the room where she was keeping an eye on Christina in the bouncer and Victoria who was watching an episode of _Teletubbies_, her favourite show.

"Uh oh!" said Victoria, imitating the characters.

Sherlock bent down to kiss Molly, then asked, in an irritated voice, "Why do you let Victoria watch that rubbish? I swear, that show lowers the IQ of every child who watches it with that silly way they constantly use baby talk to each other. Then they insist on showing their video footage twice just to cut down on production costs for something that obviously has a limited budget to begin with, judging by the quality of the show. And don't get me started on that utterly ridiculous laughing baby sun."

Molly frowned at Sherlock and folded her arms. She'd listened to Sherlock rant about the show before. True, she didn't particularly care for it either, but Victoria was still too young to understand or enjoy most television programmes, and this one had captured her interest. "Victoria likes it, Sherlock, and when she is watching it I can occasionally enjoy a little 'me' time." She indicated the book she had been reading, one of the Barbara Cartland novels Sherlock had bought her two Christmases ago that she had not had the opportunity to read until now.

"Am I not romantic enough for you?" asked Sherlock, quirking an eyebrow and pouting.

Molly laughed. "Just because I have the most wonderful, romantic husband imaginable, doesn't mean I don't like to read a good romance novel once in a while and anyway, you bought me the books so you can't complain. Rest assured, I always imagine the hero as you and the heroine as me, like in those dreams we had when we were first married."

"You are good at writing, perhaps you should write your own romance novel."

Molly rolled her eyes. "And where would I find the time for that in between working part-time and taking care of two children?" She looked suddenly thoughtful. "Although the idea is appealing. It would be nice to write a Christian historical romance. You don't see that kind of thing around. Maybe one day."

Sherlock smiled and bent to kiss her again, a more lingering one this time. "I believe you could do anything you set out to do, my love."

Victoria suddenly became aware of her daddy, the television show having just ended. She got to her feet and turned to him. "Daddy! Hold you!" Molly thought it was funny how Victoria had begun to say "hold you" rather than understanding it to be "hold me".

Sherlock obligingly scooped his daughter up and sat next to Molly with her, "So, how was your day anyway?"

"Quite peaceful." She indicated the sleeping almost-five-month-old. "I finished feeding her a little while ago, and she has been sleeping for about ten minutes. Earlier this afternoon Victoria and I did some baking and she helped me make-"

"Ginger nuts!" Sherlock cut her off. "I thought I could smell them." He tickled Victoria, who squealed with laughter. "Did you help Mummy make Daddy's favourite biscuit?"

"Yes, Daddy." She gave him a toothy grin.

"Shh, you'll wake the baby!" Molly nudged Sherlock, and he shot her an apologetic look. "How was your case, anyway?" she asked. "Did you and John wrap it up?"

"Super easy, barely an inconvenience." This had become Sherlock's mantra of late, imitating the YouTuber who poked fun at films by dissecting them and their plot holes.

Molly didn't bother asking the details because Sherlock would launch into a long description of how he had made his deductions and found the answer. She didn't need to hear the details to know he was brilliant. "Well, I'm glad to hear it."

"Oh, by the way, I got a text from Mycroft. He's popping over later with a birthday present for Victoria and he said he has an anniversary gift for us too."

Victoria wriggled off of Sherlock's lap, seeing as he was not getting any attention, and she walked over to the bouncer to look at her baby sister. Even after five months, she was fascinated by Christina and would often try to give the baby her toys. She leaned over to kiss Christina's cheek.

"Don't wake your sister, lovey." Molly spoke the words automatically and Victoria turned back towards her with a pout that looked curiously similar to Sherlock's pout of minutes earlier.

"Wanna hold baby." Victoria enjoyed sitting on Molly or Sherlock's lap and then having the baby carefully placed onto her own lap.

"When she wakes up you can sit on my lap and we can hold her for a little bit. Why don't you do one of your puzzles for now?"

There was a 24 piece _Frozen 2_ puzzle partially assembled on the coffee table, which Molly had been helping Victoria assemble.

"Okay, Mummy." Victoria headed over to the table and Molly turned her attention back to Sherlock.

"What was that about an anniversary gift? Our anniversary isn't until August."

Sherlock's lips quirked. "He too marks this particular occasion as an anniversary of sorts. Today is three years since the events at Sherrinford."

Molly felt her mouth drop open slightly. She really had forgotten about that important day this year. With all of the busy times of the past several months, adjusting to having two children, switching to part-time in her job so she could devote more of her attention to the girls, it seemed as if the year had just been flying by. Then of course Victoria's birthday had only been ten days ago and there had been a houseful of people to celebrate it. Mycroft had sent his regrets, stating he was too busy at work to get away for a party, although Molly just suspected it was an excuse to not have to interact with a lot of people. The party was, after all, held on Victoria's birthday, which happened to be a Sunday. Socialising was definitely not something Mycroft enjoyed. He was remarkably like Sherlock that way, although Sherlock handled himself well these days in social situations as long as he was with people he knew.

"I wonder what kind of anniversary present he wants to give us."

Sherlock shrugged. "Guess we'll find out."

Two hours later, Sherlock and Molly had finished eating dinner and Christina was on the play mat, reaching for the toys that were suspended above it along an arch. Sherlock had Victoria on his lap and was reading through one of her books. By now, Victoria was able to identify shapes and colours very well.

The doorbell rang and Sherlock looked up. "That'll be Mycroft."

He set the book down and hoisted Victoria onto his hip to walk with her towards the front door.

A minute later he returned, brother in tow.

Mycroft nodded at Molly. "Good evening, sister mine." In his hands he held two rather large presents and a smaller one wrapped in colourful paper with Disney princesses, obviously chosen by Elizabeth. _At least it isn't Teletubbies gift wrap,_ thought Molly with an inward smile. Sherlock would have hated that.

"These are for you, Victoria. Happy belated birthday."

Sherlock sat with Victoria, and Mycroft handed him the gifts to unwrap with her assistance.

"Cup of tea, Mycroft?" Molly asked as her brother-in-law peered down at his youngest niece.

"No, thank you. I just popped in for a moment. Your young one has grown substantially since I last saw her."

Molly recalled that the last time Mycroft had seen his nieces was on Easter Sunday when he and Elizabeth had come for a family dinner. Molly had invited them to church as well but, not surprisingly, they had declined. Sherlock's parents, however, had come to London for Easter and stayed with them. They had been happy to go to both the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services and had even seemed to enjoy the more contemporary style of Sherlock and Molly's church. Molly had been proud to introduce her in-laws to Pastor Briggs after the Easter Sunday service, which had not been possible after the Friday one as it was always a sombre occasion where the congregation left the church in quiet contemplation of Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. Molly's father-in-law had had a conversation with Pastor Briggs for several minutes after the Sunday service.

Now, Molly smiled at her brother-in-law. "You know you are welcome to visit anytime, not just for special occasions. Victoria enjoys seeing Unca Myc and Auntie Liz."

She glanced over at Sherlock and Victoria to see they had unwrapped the first gift, a wooden cube with shape cutouts and matching blocks that could be inserted into the cube.

Victoria clapped her hands at her new toy. "Wanna play."

"We must open the other presents first," said Sherlock, putting her fingers over the sellotape that secured the second package and helping her tear into the wrapping.

The second present was coloured wooden stacking rings with numbers in front from 0 to 9 to indicate how many rings were stacked on each wooden post. Apparently Mycroft was assuming his niece would be an early learner as well, and that she was ready to start counting. Molly knew Sherlock would enjoy helping with Victoria's education in counting as well.

The third present turned out to be, and Molly could see the chagrined expression on Sherlock's face as he saw it, along with Victoria's delighted expression, a _Teletubbies_ DVD. He looked at Molly reproachfully, knowing she had obviously told Mycroft or Elizabeth about Victoria's favourite show.

Molly merely grinned at him.

Sherlock gave a small sigh and set the DVD down. "Say thank you to Uncle Mycroft," Sherlock told Victoria.

Victoria turned her head to her uncle. "Thank you. Unca Myc."

Mycroft gave his niece a small smile. Molly knew he didn't care for the abbreviated version of his name, but obviously understood that Victoria was too young to understand that and say his full name. "You're most welcome, Victoria."

Sherlock set Victoria down with her new toys as Molly gathered up the wrapping paper to throw it away. "Thanks, Mycroft. Didn't you say you had something else for us?" he asked.

"Ah yes." Mycroft felt in his coat pocket and withdrew a small case that contained either a CD or DVD. "I almost forgot. I've had this for a while and wanted to give it to you at the right time. Please understand my intentions are not to bring up difficult memories but to give you both something that you will recognise as the beginning of your life together as a couple."

He handed the CD case to Sherlock while Molly left the room to throw away the discarded wrapping paper.

When she returned, Mycroft was saying, "Well, I must be getting home. I came straight from the office and have yet to eat my dinner. Goodbye for now."

He bent down to give Victoria a peck on the cheek while Molly picked up Christina from the play mat for him to do the same with her. Molly was very glad that Mycroft had softened enough over the past three years to show his nieces his affection this way. Actions spoke louder than words.

Christina reached a hand up to Mycroft's cheek as he kissed hers. "Goodbye, little one."

As soon as he had gone, Sherlock showed Molly the CD case, and she saw it had a label with writing on it - _**Sherrinford, 20-5-2017**_. She rocked Christina gently in her arms and looked up at Sherlock. "Is that what I think it is?"

"If by that you mean footage from that day, presumably from the phone call between us, I imagine so."

Molly drew in her breath. "I must admit, at times I've found myself wondering if there were recorded security camera images from that day, but I never felt it was my place to ask. Do you think it will have audio as well?"

Sherlock shrugged. "I'm a detective but I cannot deduce that without more facts so I guess we will find out when we take a look at it."

Molly furrowed her brow. "Are you okay with looking at it?"

"It's been three years, Molly. There will always be scars associated with that day but I don't think reliving the experience will be as painful as it would have been if only a little time had passed. I have years of a wonderful life with you to temper any emotional distress that might occur as a result of watching any video footage."

"In that case, why don't we plan to watch it after we put Victoria to bed tonight and I get Christina settled in the bouncer so we can keep an eye on her?" Her lips quirked. "Maybe we will get a couple hours to ourselves."

He gave her a pained smile. If it had been difficult to get time alone with one child, it was even more so with two, although definitely easier now that Christina usually only woke once or twice during the night. However, she tended to be up later than Victoria and woke sooner due to her naps during the day. "Sounds like a plan."

He placed the disc on the mantel over the fireplace.

"Ready for some ginger nuts?" asked Molly.

"Am I ever not ready for those?"

Molly grinned at him and went to get the biscuits.

Sherlock showed his appreciation of Molly's baking skills by eating four biscuits. As usual, he had to eat an even number of them so when he absently picked up a third biscuit and began to munch on it he obviously could not stop there.

Molly was always content to just have one. She liked ginger nuts but wasn't as passionate about them as Sherlock and liked him to enjoy most of them. She crumbled up one of the biscuits for Victoria as well.

After their snack came story time, and Molly was looking forward to it as usual. It was a highlight of her evening. She and Sherlock would read a story to Victoria, putting on the different voices of the characters. Sherlock was a marvel at doing different voices, probably as a result of so much practice over the years being in disguise for various cases.

There was a little pile of story books on one of the bookshelves and Molly chose a new one, a birthday gift for Victoria from Molly's mother. The book was called _The Tiger Who Came to Tea, _and Molly recalled it being a favourite story from when she had been very little. Her parents too had often read stories together to her as a child.

While Molly had been selecting the book, Sherlock had sat Victoria on his lap. With his socked foot he was gently pushing on the bouncer to rock Christina, who was gumming a teething ring. Molly had felt the bump under Christina's gum that indicated her first tooth would be emerging soon.

"Did you ever read this story as a child?" Molly showed Sherlock the book.

He furrowed his brow. "It seems familiar. Doesn't the tiger pretty much eat everything in the house?"

"That's the one, and he drinks everything including all the water from the tap."

"Oh, I remember now. I told Mummy the notion of drinking all the water from the tap so that the little girl couldn't have a bath was preposterous because water didn't come in limited quantities that way. I think that was the end of story time for me because I kept analysing books and pointing out the ludicrous plots."

"Molly laughed. "And how old were you?"

"About six, I suppose. Remember, my memories from my childhood are fractured so I don't have a clear timeline of events." Sherlock pulled Victoria more securely into his lap because she was getting restless. "Victoria, Mummy and I are going to read now so stay put."

"Who should do the narration?" asked Molly. "I will do the voices of the mother and Sophie and you can do the voices for the tiger and the father."

"Go ahead. You do it this time and I'll do it next time."

So Molly began to read. "Once there was a little girl named Sophie..."

She was interrupted on a couple occasions by Victoria pointing at the pictures of the tiger and saying "Tiger!"

Sherlock interrupted Molly's narration for when the father came home and said, "I'm home!" which was not actually written in the book.

When Victoria saw the picture of Sophie in her red coat, she pointed to it. "My coat."

Molly nodded. "Yes, that coat looks just like your coat." She remembered how adorable Victoria had looked in her red coat on Christmas Eve, reaching to catch snowflakes before the church service. Little had Molly known at the time that mere hours later, Christina would be born.

Molly finished the story. "But he never did."

Victoria clapped her hands. "Again."

Sherlock lifted Victoria off his lap. "This is not that inane Teletubbies show, Victoria. One read-through is enough."

Molly frowned at him. "Sherlock, don't make fun of her enjoyment of the show or I will put in that new DVD and make you watch it with her tonight."

Sherlock gave an exaggerated groan. "Anything but that. Torture would be preferable."

At around nine-thirty, Sherlock gave Victoria her bath and got her ready for bed while Molly fed Christina. To Molly's disappointment, Victoria was having one of her stubborn days where she didn't want to sleep but wanted to play with her new toys. Molly noticed Sherlock surreptitiously taking the _Teletubbies_ DVD and setting it onto the mantel next to the CD case he'd put there earlier, out of sight of Victoria. Fortunately for him, she seemed to have forgotten about it - for now.

By the time Victoria was tired enough to be put into her cot, it was nearly eleven o'clock and Christina had already been sleeping in the bouncer for an hour. There was no telling how long it would be before she woke from her nap.

But finally, it was time to find out what exactly was on the disc. Would there be audio to go along with the video? Molly twisted her fingers together in nervous excitement and watched as Sherlock inserted the disc into the Blu-ray player.

* * *

**Author's note:** Initially this was intended as a one-shot, but I was at almost 5000 words and realised I wanted to put in extra scenes with Victoria.

So here's a little context. _The Tiger Who Came to Tea_ is apparently a very popular children's book in England that was first published in 1968. American readers may not be aware of this, but English readers may know that Benedict Cumberbatch voiced the father in a television adaption of the story that was released this past Christmas Eve. The words by the dad of "I'm home" are not used in the book itself but BC uses them in the Christmas special, therefore I thought it would be fun to have Sherlock interject it during story time. I do find it amusing to give a nod to the actor in different roles at times.

You can find the whole book read out load and also the trailer for the Christmas special on YouTube if you'd like to check it out.

Did you have any favourite storybooks growing up? If you are from a foreign country, I'd especially love to hear what stories you grew up with!

Oh, as for the _Teletubbies_ comments from Sherlock, I have to say I put my own feelings about the show into Sherlock. My two older daughters though loved the show when they were very little. After a hiatus of several years from making _Teletubbies_ episodes, new ones were made starting in 2015, with a slightly revamped introduction. The format remains the same though - I forced myself to watch one of the newer episodes just to check. Thanks to **THEONEWITHWHEELSASH** for providing a YouTube link to a newer episode for me. Were you or your children _Teletubbies_ fans?

So, now for what is to come - what exactly do you think will be on the DVD from Mycroft? Are you excited to find out? Place your deductions in the review box below.


	2. Sherrinford Revisited

**Special note:** Please take a look at the cover image I have uploaded that my talented reader, **Elizabeth Robello**, did for me. A larger image can be found on my Tumblr page. Her images always make my stories feel more real and believable. If you view the larger image on Tumblr you will even see that the television screen is displaying the Teletubbies!

As always, thank you, Elizabeth!

* * *

Sherlock sat next to Molly and settled an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. He pressed play on the remote control.

She was surprised when the disc didn't immediately begin with footage from that day, instead, an image of Mycroft appeared.

"Sherlock, Molly, I would like to take the opportunity to tell you I have had this footage in my possession since shortly after the events of Sherrinford. I did not wish to share it with you until I could be certain your life as a couple was settled enough that it would not be too traumatic. It is approaching three years and I have seen how your life together with your two daughters is one of peace and contentment. Therefore, my plan is to give you this disc on the third anniversary of what I know Sherlock calls his emotional breakthrough. I have seen for myself that is an accurate description of what happened."

He paused, and Molly could see he was struggling to come up with what to say next.

Finally he said, "I want you to know, brother mine, you are one of the bravest men I have ever known and I am proud to call you my brother. Molly, your are a remarkable woman and it is my honour to call you sister. I wish the two of you many more years of domestic bliss together with your daughters and whatever other offspring you might choose to have. And now, you may proceed."

The screen changed to a much grainier picture. Molly watched Sherlock pacing a room and John getting up from a bed, heard a little girl's voice and then saw the lights turn red.

A moment later she heard a familiar voice that had existed only in her memory for several years "Hello. My name's Jim Moriarty. Welcome to the final problem."

Molly glanced at Sherlock whose expression was tense. She listened for another minute, then reached for the remote and paused the DVD. "Wow, if I didn't know your sister was imitating the voice of a little girl, I would have been fooled as well," she said. It was remarkable to be listening to that voice and the whole conversation that had convinced Sherlock, Mycroft and John that there was a plane in imminent danger of crashing.

Sherlock looked at her. "I remember feeling angry at the time that my sister was using an innocent child to further her own ends. The whole set-up with the Moriarty recordings was so elaborate that if I hadn't experienced it for myself I would not have believed it possible."

Molly reached up to brush at one of Sherlock's curls on his forehead. "You were certainly keeping your calm there despite the circumstances."

She hit the button to resume playback and then watched the scene unfold with the governor and the security camera then displaying an image of the woman behind Eurus, bound and gagged.

Of course, Sherlock had explained everything that had happened, but it was still a shock to see the way Eurus had so coldly demanded that either Mycroft or John shoot the governor. Watching John bail at the last minute and then seeing the governor turn the gun on himself was hard enough, but the completely casual way Eurus turned and shot his wife because the conditions had not been met made Molly's blood run cold. She had never really considered how ruthless Eurus had been.

Noticing Molly's expression, Sherlock squeezed her shoulder. "Do you need a moment?"

"No, I'm okay." Molly bit her lip and continued to watch as Sherlock onscreen picked up the gun, checked the clip and said, "There's only one bullet left."

She head Eurus's response. "You will only need one." A pause. "But you _will_ need it." A chill swept through Molly and she clutched at Sherlock's free hand as she heard the hiss of a door slide open through which the men had to enter.

"I hate the visual effects, the way she made everything turn red and all those comments by Moriarty. It's like some horror film."

She felt Sherlock's lips on her hair before he said, "It was all part of her game to keep us off-balance."

Molly listened as Sherlock spoke in an encouraging voice to who he thought was the little girl. His voice was pitched higher than usual, in the way people typically talk to young children and she couldn't help thinking it showed Sherlock's true ability to connect with the young, even though he was not aware of it.

She listened and watched as the three men discussed the mystery of the Garrideb brothers and the way Sherlock was able to deduce who was guilty of murder.

Eurus's cold voice was telling Sherlock, "Condemn him. Condemn him in the knowledge of what will happen to the man you name."

Molly glanced at her husband, to see he was squeezing his eyes shut, obviously reliving the moment when he had been forced to condemn a man to death. She knew that would have been difficult.

"I condemn Alex Garrideb."

Even though she knew what was coming, Molly gasped when she saw the innocent men's ropes being released so they would fall to their deaths, then the same happening to the guilty party when John asked Eurus why she had done what she had done. Eurus's voice was so emotionless and again, Molly saw how truly disturbed her sister-in-law had been.

"It's coming, Molly. Be ready."

Molly turned her head to see a haunted look on Sherlock's face and knew what was about to happen. It was the test which involved her.

She saw the coffin, heard the conversation with the little girl and the men discussing what needed to be done, another quick chat with the girl followed by Eurus cutting the connection and saying "Coffin. Problem: someone is about to die. It will be, as I understand it, a tragedy. So many days not lived, so many words unsaid, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera."

Molly listened and thought Eurus had indeed been accurate. If she had died, she would have not told Sherlock she loved him, but she knew Sherlock had a different perception of what Eurus had meant. He had explained the conversation and how he believed it to have meant that Eurus was trying to force him into realising _he _had left so much unsaid, they had so many days not lived - together. Sherlock had told Molly that Eurus had confirmed this when he had questioned her about it, that the "I love you" was not supposed to be someone who loved him, but to bring attention to the one he loved.

Apparently though, Sherlock at the time had not immediately understood this to be the case. Molly listened to the rapid-fire deductions Sherlock made about the coffin, John's quip of "Lonely night on Google?" that made her smile briefly, and then Mycroft's interruption of Sherlock's monologue.

She watched as Mycroft showed the lid of the coffin to Sherlock with the plaque that said "I love you".

Molly saw as Mycroft's words, ending with, "So, who loves you? I'm assuming It's not a long list," resulted in an expression change by Sherlock and it was obvious he had just come to the realisation that the coffin was meant for herself.

Then she listened to Jon's assumption about the coffin being meant for Irene Adler and Sherlock's quick dismissal. She heard the slow words, "Unmarried, practical about death," that came from his lips and the way John finally came to the right conclusion as Sherlock said, "Molly Hooper."

Sherlock paused the playback just after Eurus said, "I'm calling her on your phone, Sherlock."

He turned to Molly and she saw tears in his eyes. "I was so afraid for you, sweetheart. As soon as I realised the coffin was meant for you I thought you were going to die. My sister had showed no compassion up to that point. I had no reason to suspect she would treat you any differently."

Molly leaned forward to press her lips against his briefly before saying, "I can see now how much you downplayed what happened. Do you want to turn this off? Is it still too hard to watch?"

"No, I want you to see me, to know the desperation I felt for you even before I acknowledged the reason for it, that I loved you more than life itself."

Molly's eyes, which had been filling with tears, overflowed down her cheeks at that and she felt Sherlock move his arm from around her shoulder so he could cradle her face gently with both hands. He kissed her again, the DVD temporarily forgotten as they expressed their emotions through the touch of their lips until a sudden wail came from the bouncer. So much for Christina staying asleep while they watched the DVD.

Molly rose from the sofa and picked up Christina, bringing her back to the sofa.

"Are you hungry again already, poppet?" asked Sherlock, bending to kiss his daughter's forehead.

'Molly smiled wryly. Christina was one of those babies who refused anything aside from Mummy's milk. Molly sometimes felt like her milk production must be lacking as Christina seemed to want to feed so often during the day, but she appeared to be growing well, as evidenced by Mycroft's earlier comment, so she supposed she had enough. It could be tiring though to feel a bit like a milking machine.

Molly lifted her blouse and unhooked her maternity bra while Sherlock hit the stop button on the player. The rest of the DVD could wait.

Fifteen minutes later, fed, burped and changed, Molly took the baby upstairs and put her into her cot in the room beside the master bedroom. Victoria's room was at the other end of the passage. There had been some discussion over whether to put the cot for Christina into Victoria's bedroom as well when she transitioned from the Moses basket a month earlier, but Sherlock and Molly had decided it would be better if the one child was not waking the other. So they were in separate rooms and two baby monitors kept vigil over their movements.

Molly laid the thankfully-sleeping-once-again Christina gently into the cot and hoped there would be no more interruptions for some time.

As soon as she arrived back in the front room, she saw Sherlock had made them cups of tea.

"Should we finish watching while we drink our tea?" Sherlock asked.

Molly picked up her cup and took a careful sip. "Might as well. I feel like we stopped almost at the climax of the whole thing."

Sherlock's lips quirked and he took as sip of his own tea. "I suppose a life -altering realisation could be considered a climax."

He turned on the Blu-ray player again and hit the skip button a few times until he got to the spot where he had paused playback earlier.

Molly heard Eurus's caution about Sherlock not being allowed to tell her what was going on, saw Sherlock's short nod. It looked like he was staring right at the security camera although Molly assumed he was looking at the view screen of herself. Mycroft had obviously had his team splice together several security feeds so that at times the screen image displayed Sherlock and at other times, her. The sound of the phone ringing began and Molly looked at herself getting her tea, glancing at the phone and ignoring it. She really hadn't been feeling good that day and she had still been a little upset over Sherlock not being in contact since before the Baker Street explosion.

Molly's lips curved upwards with Sherlock's surprise and pique at her not answering the phone, and his response to John's comment that he never answered his own phone. "Yes, but it's _me _calling." Sherlock knew her too well. She remembered wondering at the time how Sherlock had known she was even there, why he had made another attempt at calling her.

Molly set down her tea cup and watched the conversation, seeing her own eyes moisten at Sherlock's insistence that she say those three words, watching Sherlock's anxiety and desperation grow.

Sherlock threaded his fingers through hers. And then finally she saw for herself the expression on Sherlock's face when he had looked directly at the image of her, the way realisation had dawned in his eyes after he forced the words out for the first time, the absolute knowledge of the truth when he had expressed them again. It was utterly profound.

Molly let out a little sob, she couldn't help it. She and Sherlock had tried doing a "re-creation" of the phone call when she had been pregnant with Victoria but they had been unable to finish it, the hurt and anguish was still too present. This sob though, was a sob of joy.

Sherlock only had time to pause the playback once again as Molly flung herself against him and kissed him all over his face, understanding the final confirmation that those moments had truly been life-altering ones as Sherlock had said.

His arms went around her and their lips met in a fierce, passionate kiss that seemed to go on forever. They were both panting a little by the end of it and Sherlock stroked her hair. "Let's hurry up and watch the last bit and then we can go to bed."

Molly nodded and rested her head against Sherlock's shoulder as he pressed the button once again to resume the playback.

She saw Sherlock's anguish as he tore apart that coffin that had been meant for her.

This time she hit the pause button. "How on earth did you manage to tear apart a wooden coffin with your bare hands? It's like you were super-human or something, with the strength of Samson. I never really thought about it before."

Sherlock's lips quirked. "Not quite Samson, I'm afraid, my love. Actually, while the coffin looked like a real one, it was merely a façade with a thin, wood veneer over cheap materials that I didn't immediately deduce because I was too concerned with what the coffin mean. I hadn't intended to actually smash the coffin, was just going to bang on it in frustration. Then, when it completely broke apart so easily, I decided to finish the job. It disintegrated quite easily in the end."

"That explains why you didn't have any splinters or other visible signs from doing it." She kissed his cheek. "The fact that you felt so much anguish about what happened, it was another sign of how much you cared about hurting me." She hit the button to resume playing expecting the video was about to end.

She had completely forgotten that test was not the last one. Her mouth dropped open as Mycroft tried to bait Sherlock into shooting him, witnessed Sherlock's ability to see through his ruse. She then watched as Sherlock turned the gun on himself to begin the countdown to his own death, because he could not kill either John or Mycroft. She saw him pull out the tranquiliser dart from where it had hit his neck and collapse. And then the screen went black. That was finally the end of the footage. She knew what had happened beyond that had been at Musgrave Hall. There had probably been further footage of Sherlock and John being removed, along with Mycroft, that Mycroft had not bothered to share.

Molly took Sherlock's hand. "I forgot you almost killed yourself." Her voice was hushed and again she fought back tears, thinking of how things could have been different. It was yet more evidence of the grace of God to have brought Sherlock through it so they would finally have an opportunity for a new life together.

Sherlock looked at her, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "Remember what I told you Eurus said to me when Mycroft and I saw her a couple weeks before our wedding, when we were looking for her to confirm what we had learned about Moran being her secret contact and helping with everything she did? She expected me to do that, that is why the tranquiliser darts were ready. Despite her seeming anger and fear about my decision, it was all part of her plan to get me to Musgrave Hall for the final showdown to restore my memory about Victor. She'd already succeeded in restoring my emotions."

Molly nodded. "And she could easily have killed Mycroft at that point yet she didn't. Your sister really didn't know what she was doing, but she did care about you in spite of herself. I'm so glad that she has changed so much over the past three years. That anti-psychosis medicine has done wonders for her."

"It has. I forgot to tell you that when Mycroft was here over Easter, he told me he is looking into transferring her from Sherrinford to a facility that specialises in helping people with conditions like hers. She will never be able to lead a normal life, but she could lead a life that has more meaning than a jail cell. If she is transferred to this facility, she could even potentially meet her nieces, if you felt comfortable with it." He looked at her a little uncertainly.

"I don't think she would ever wish to hurt a member of her family again. She has also made a lot of progress in learning about the Bible and the values within it, the teaching about love and the other fruits of the spirit."

Sherlock dropped Molly's hand to pick up his tea cup and drain it. "I'm glad we are on the same page. Now, finish your tea. I'd like to spend some quality alone time with you while our daughters are sleeping."

Molly picked up her own cup and drank the now tepid tea while Sherlock turned off the television screen. She set down the cup, stood, and held out her hand to him.

He rose and their lips met in a fiery kiss that left them both longing for more than just kisses. "Well, happy third anniversary, darling," she said.

He looked into her eyes with the exact soft expression that had adorned his face on the video footage she had just seen, his voice reverent as he said, "I love you."

"I love you too, always."

Then, picking up a video monitor each that displayed an image of a sleeping little Holmes, and linking their free hands, they headed upstairs to enjoy a hopefully uninterrupted celebration of the love they had acknowledged to one another out loud three years earlier.

* * *

**Author's note:** I had to think about whether I wanted to take the time away from my other WIP's in order to do a story for the third anniversary of the airing of TFP on January 15th. In the end I found something I had been wanting to write about but had never gotten to do - Sherlock and Molly getting to view the security camera footage of that day at Sherrinford. I thought three years was probably a good amount of time to have elapsed.

So, I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse once again into the future of my characters and their two daughters. I know it can be confusing because I set my storyline kind of "in the future" from when the episodes aired (after all, I did not watch the show until the summer of 2017). I just liked the idea of doing "real-time stories" for them. This one then, is actually set in the future - May 20th of this year which is three years after my timeline of the events at Sherrinford.

You might find the conversation surrounding the coffin smashing is unusual; I've read several stories that talk about Sherlock having splinters afterwards etc, but there's no sign of it in the show that he was injured, so I decided to go with what I could see and make my own interpretation that the coffin wasn't solid and broke apart easily. What is your head canon on that?

Some of the conversation, as is usual for me, refers back to events that occurred in my initial post-TFP story. I will always promote _A Journey to Love, Faith and Marriage _because it is the jumping off point for all my Journey stories and I think the reader will have a richer experience if they have taken the time to read that particular story, long as it is. It provides context for everything else I have written for these characters in the "real" world.

If this story appealed to you, please consider following, favouriting and leaving feedback.


End file.
